Abstract: In recent years, researchers in psychology have made significant progress in the study of poverty psychology. It has been found that the poor class is suffering from not only material poverty, but also mental poverty which is mainly manifested in aspiration failure and behavior failure. The social cognitive theory of social class, which can explain the main mechanism of aspiration failure, argues that the poor have less resources and stronger dependence on the outside factors, thus forming a social cognitive tendency of contextualism, and tending to think that their own lives are mainly influenced by situational factors. Therefore, the long-term state of poverty may make them lose their motivation to get themselves out of poverty. Further, the scarcity theory, which can explain the key mechanism of behavior failure, argues that chronic poverty creates a scarcity mindset among the poor, which makes them more focus on issues related to scarce resources, resulting in the lack of cognitive resource. Consequently, when the poor have to perform other tasks, their cognitive and executive functions will be impeded by the lack of cognitive resources, resulting in more impulsive behaviors and difficulties in making rational economic decisions that may help them getting out of poverty. In relation to “Aspiration Failure” and “Behavior Failure”, the researchers have developed conditional cash transfer projects, “transfer and persistence” psychological intervention strategies, and social class mobility belief intervention strategies Among these intervention programs, conditional cash transfer programs have been widely researched. Conditional cash transfer programs not only have a significant effect on alleviating scarcity mindset of poor people, but also on improving their educational aspiration. This is mainly because it directly alleviates the economic pressure of poor families, and the additional conditions change the recipient's belief in education. When poor households receive cash assistance, parents and children are more likely to adjust their educational goals because of increased demand for human capital. Besides, the increase in income directly affects educational input and indirectly affects family education expectations and goals. In addition, the economic assistance obtained has alleviated the scarcity mindset of the poor, and reducing the pressure limit can release more psychological resources, which makes people think about future and long-term investment, such as children's education, which enables them to establish longer-term goals. That is, conditional cash transfer projects increase the educational ambition of the recipients by releasing psychological resources. Finally, future researches in this field are discussed. On one hand, future research should combine the social cognitive theory of social class and the scarcity theory, construct an integrated model of mental poverty (including both aspiration and decision-making behavior), and explore deeply the mechanism resulting in mental poverty. On the other hand, researchers should strengthen the indigenous research. In short, exploring poverty from the perspective of mental poverty can help us have a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of poverty, and help the poor enhancing their ability of self-development, and breaking the cycle of poverty.

Key words: poor class, mental poverty, social cognitive tendency, scarcity mindset

摘要： 长期物质贫困产生特殊的心理后果——心理贫困。心理贫困指的是不利于贫困阶层摆脱贫困的心理与行为模式，主要表现为 “志向失灵”与“行为失灵”，即抱负与志向缺位，理念和意识扭曲，能力与行为方式错位，还易于做出不利于脱贫的决策行为；长此以往，就陷入“贫穷—特定心理与行为模式—继续贫穷”的恶性循环。对此，研究者们先后开发了有条件现金转移项目、减少认知资源损耗项目、“转移和坚持”心理干预策略、社会阶层流动信念干预策略、公平感提升策略等干预方案。该领域研究及其相关成果对“精准”扶贫，促进社会公平、增加人类福祉具有重要意义。未来研究应在整合的干预方案和本土化的干预方案等方面予以加强。

关键词: 贫困阶层, 心理贫困, 社会认知倾向, 稀缺心态